Fair Trade Footwear

IFAT/WFTO Standards

IFAT/WFTO is the ONLY global body that certifies companies as being FAIR TRADE. They prescribe 10 standards that Fair Trade companies and organizations must follow in their day-to-day work and carries out continues monitoring to ensure these standards are upheld.

Among these standards are important issues like creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged, the payment of fair wages promoting gender equity, transparency in business practices, promoting Fair Trade, dedication to healthy working conditions and a commitment to the highest levels of environmental practice.

The IFAT accreditation further strengthens consumers' awareness of our mission and operating practices and allows them to FEEL as good as they LOOK in our products! And it assures EVERYONE the world over that soleRebels products are made in the highest of ethical standards.

Trading towards Hope + Development

soleRebels is based on the revolutionary idea that to truly enjoy lasting development, developing nation producers MUST create,
grow and control successful global brands and the equity developed in
them, the very same formula that global brands in developed nations have
so successfully deployed to build themselves and their countries.

In the period since our founding in 2004, soleRebels has not only
emerged as Ethiopia’s leading eco-ethical footwear brand, and one of the
leading ones globally, we are also the first WFTO/IFAT FAIR TRADE certified Fair Trade footwear firm in Ethiopia and the #1 footwearexporter to the US market. This marks us as the TIP of a changing dynamic in Ethiopia, a historic and vital shift away from AID and
towards TRADE as well as a critical PUSH to control our destiny
by exporting higher value branded finished goods instead of low value
commodity exports. We are now sold by many leading retailers who have
backed us from day one!

Our ambition is nothing less than to continue to nurture
soleRebels into a market leading global footwear brand, a
deeply important first for a developing world country like Ethiopia, and
a feat which holds the seeds of greater shared prosperity here.

To best appreciate the significance of a global footwear brand
emerging from a country like Ethiopia, we always say to people: just
pause for a moment and imagine the deep economic uplift, distributed
benefits, and PROSPERITY that become possible here in
Ethiopia as soleRebels becomes possibly the TIMBERLAND or the ADIDAS or
the NIKE or the PUMA of Ethiopia or Africa!

Imagine the jobs that are created, allowing more highly marginalized community residents the chance at a decent life!

Imagine the ever enlarging WEB OF SUPPLIERS that are nurtured and who grow and prosper as we grow!

Imagine the communities that are elevated and SUSTAINABLE PROSPERITY that's
created as we CONTINUE to be able to offer more employment AND HIGHER
VALUE EMPLOYMENT as we add designers, marketing managers, production
Vice Presidents, and more!

Imagine the foreign exchange growth our country can experience;
foreign exchange that DIRECTLY assists in the overall development of the
nation allowing us to develop our OWN solutions OUT of poverty!

Building & controlling 100% of a GLOBAL brand as we have been doing holds exactly these types of exciting possibilities -and THAT is real + true + lasting + sustainable development!!

And we are on track to do just this. soleRebels is accomplishing
what we set out to do having created more than 140 jobs in Zenabwork andIGNITING MAJOR growth for many local suppliers.